Joshua Johnson
speaker
384 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Aug 2026
last heard 12 Sep
Joshua Johnson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Another time on NPR, I was interviewing a former Baltimore police officer who had become this fiery advocate for law enforcement reform, and he was going on and on, just a long rant in autopilot, just ...
And I was trying to stay objective and listening as best I could when I thought I heard his voice waver just a little.
And in that waver, I detected more than his rage.
It sounded like trauma.
So near the end of the interview, I mentioned hesitantly that he seemed traumatized by his experiences as a cop, and could he reflect on that.
He said, I put people in prison cells who are better people than me
Whoa.
Sure enough, he went right back to his talking points, but it didn't matter, because in that moment, that sliver of his story, his defenses dropped, and he shifted from being right to being real.
Look, some people are just difficult, but we can deal with them more simply.
Here are three tips to get you started.
First,
Get the story, particularly the key decisions and the turning points.
What someone believes is not as important as how they chose to believe it.
Second, my NPR host pro tip, keep your questions short.
Ten seconds tops.
Long questions can feel like a setup or like you're rambling.
And third, use that mental microscope.
Look as closely as you can.
Remember, you don't have to like it, but learn from it.
It is time to reconnect, even to the people you can't stand.
Showing 361–380 of 384 · page 19 of 20
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